In
April 2002, an article about the situation in Afghanistan appeared in Time magazine. The author of that
article wrote that…
One [arms] dealer tried to interest a Time reporter in a
Kalashnikov for the bargain price of $200, with 100 rounds thrown in “to close
the sale.” The man, who identified himself only as Abdul, said he wouldn’t need
his weapons anymore. “Peace has come to Afghanistan,” he says. “The King is
coming home, and people are sick of fighting.”[1]
Fifteen years later, has peace come to Afghanistan?
It is very doubtful.
The need for peace in Afghanistan is probably just
as great today as it was fifteen years ago. Furthermore, though our country is at least a little more stable, the need for inner, spiritual peace is just as great among
Americans as among any other group of people in the world.
Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love are the four traditional
themes of Advent that the Church of Jesus Christ has celebrated and preached
for hundreds of years. We are going to consider these four themes from the
prophet Isaiah over the next four Sundays. Today, we focus on peace from Isaiah
2:1-5. Allow me to read again the words we heard earlier in our service, this
time, in context. Listen for God’s Word to you….
The word
that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as
the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the
nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that
we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many
peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I
invite you to focus with me on one phrase from this passage: “Swords into Plowshares”.
Notice
that the beating of the swords into plowshares, the conversion of weaponry into
“livingry”, follows the judgment. From a Christian perspective, we believe that
real and everlasting peace will only come to this tired and sorry world of ours
only when Christ returns for the final judgment to establish his everlasting
kingdom on a renewed earth. This text is an Advent text in that it looks
forward to the Second Coming of Christ, as well as, from Isaiah’s perspective,
the first coming.
As
we are all, no doubt, aware, there is a problem with the kind of peace this
world achieves. It always passes.
One
of the most striking illustrations of this comes from the First World War. One
cold, moonlit, Christmas Eve, the soldiers on both sides of the conflict huddled
in the trenches. Because of the annual Christmas truce, the fighting had
stopped. Suddenly, from the British trenches, a loud, sweet tenor voice began
to sing “The Lord Is My Shepherd,” and the sound floated up into the clear,
moonlit air.
Then
from the German trenches, a rich baritone voice tuned in, singing the same song
in German. For a few moments, everyone in both trenches concentrated on the
sound of these two invisible singers and the beautiful music and the harmony.
The British soldier and the German soldier sang praise to the Lord who was
their shepherd. The singing stopped, and the sound slowly died away.
All
the soldiers, on both sides, huddled in the bottom of their respective
trenches, trying to keep warm until Christmas Day dawned. Then, early on
Christmas morning, some of the British soldiers climbed out of their trenches
into No Man’s Land, carrying a football (what we Americans would call a soccer
ball). These English soldiers started kicking around the football, in a pickup
game in No Man’s Land, between the trenches.
Then
some of the German soldiers climbed out of their trench, and England played
Germany at football in No Man’s Land, on Christmas Day, in the middle of the
battlefield in France in the First World War. England won the game, by the way.
Then,
the next morning, the carnage began again, with machine guns and bayonet
fighting. Everything was back to “normal”.[2]
That
is the way of this world. However, the vision of Isaiah tells us that one day
the song about the Lord who is our Shepherd, and the game, and the peace will
be real and lasting.
Does
that mean we do not need to work for peace now, that we can just wait for the
Lord to bring it about in his own good timing? No, I do not believe so. I
believe the Lord will bring about that final, everlasting peace through us. It
is something we need to begin working toward even now in this war-torn world of
ours.
That
is why Isaiah adds, “O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
As
N. T. Wright has written,
Isaiah’s promise of universal peace must
therefore be read, like Paul’s call to personal holiness, as our present
agenda. We must neither look helplessly at a dark and sleeping world, nor think
complacently that we, the church, are all right as we are. We must wake people
up to the fact that the sun is already shining, and that the judge of the
nations is at the door, longing to see his justice and peace enfold the world
in a single embrace.[3]
The
great nineteenth century London preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, has some
wonderful commentary on this verse. He says this about the light of the Lord….
No other light is comparable to it…. No
other walking is so safe, so gladsome…. In this light, we find certainty for
the mind…. In this light, we find rest for the conscience…. In this light, we
find direction for the judgment…. In this light, we find delight for the soul….
In this light, we find communion for the heart.
Then Spurgeon tells this lovely story….
A weary and discouraged woman, after struggling all day with
contrary winds and tides, came to her home, and flinging herself into a chair,
said: “Everything looks dark, dark.”
“Why don’t you turn your face to the light, aunty dear?” said
a little niece who was standing near.
The words were a message from on high, and the weary eyes
were turned toward him who is the Light and the Life of men, and in whose light
alone we see light.
[1] Simon
Robinson, “Today’s a Great Day to Buy a Used AK,” TIME.com (4-9-02), (accessed 4-17-02); submitted by Lee Eclov, Lake Forest,
Illinois
[3] N. T.
Wright, Twelve Months of Sundays:
Reflections on Bible Readings, Year A, London: SPCK, 2001, p. 3.
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